AUSTRALIA - AU
Jurisdiction - General Information
Australia has been a Contracting Party to the Paris Convention since October 10, 1925. It has also been aContracting Party to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) since March 31, 1980. In addition, it is a party
to the Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Microorganisms for thePurposes of Patent Procedure and the Patent Law Treaty (PLT).
More legal information about intellectual property-related laws and regulations of Australia can befound on WIPO Lex.

Online Patent Register and Online Gazette
Australia has an Online Register. The Online Register is part of the Australian Patent Database. It also
has an Online Gazette (the Australian Official Journal of Patents).

Features and search functionalities
The Online Register has an English interface.
Through the Online Register you can retrieve information on PCT National Phase Entry, Fee Payment,
Legal Status, Patent Term Extensions, and access the Dossier/File Wrapper Information and the Full
Publications.
The Online Register can also be searched by PCT Application/Publication Number, byApplicant/Inventor Name, and by Priority Data.
The Online Gazette is searchable by number, downloadable in PDF (from 2002) or XML (from 8September 2016) format and published weekly in English. The current coverage is from 2002 to present.

Additional Information
Particularities of patent protection in Australia
Patent Term Extension for pharmaceutical products is available.

Search tips
Non-certified extracts from the Register of Patents can be obtained online under the entry"Specification/e-Register" on the Application Details page.
PCT Application/Publication Number search can be done using formats like PCT/US2010/026073(application) or WO2010/102020 (publication). Click on the question mark on the right in the structured
search to see the full range of searchable number formats.
An example of data reported as a Legal Status is, e.g., " CEASED" for PCT/US2010/026073. It is reported
in the result list.

To access the Dossier/File Wrapper Information, see the entry "eDossier" after having clicked on theapplication number on the "Search Results" page; e.g., PCT/EP2009/000017. eDossiers are generally
available for patent applications filed from around 2002.
To access information about the PCT National Phase Entry, see the entry "PCT details" under“Bibliographic data” after having clicked on the application number on the "Search Results" page. The
same should be done for Fee Payment, e.g. see the entry "Fee/Publication history" after having clickedon the application number on the 'Search Results' page.
To know if an extension of patent term has been sought, view the entry “Extension of term” under“Lifecycle details”, e.g. for patent 2003254711.
See the entry "Specification/e-Register" to access the Full publications after having clicked on theapplication number on the "Search Results" page. For information about the kind codes used inAustralia, see the "Explanation of Specification Codes" there.
Up until May 24, 2018 the Online Gazette was published in two editions: the Australian Official Journalof Patents and the Supplement to the Australian Official Journal of Patents. From May 24, 2018 allpatent publications appear in the Australian Official Journal of Patents.
To retrieve relevant online gazettes for a patent application from the register, select “Publicationhistory” under “Fee/Publication history” and select the relevant Vol/Iss.